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Bills fan playoff Game 1 Attendee thread


richNjoisy

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Kinda crazy story.

 

Season ticket holder in VA that had enough priority to snag 2 tix. My wife and I left VA ~8 am yesterday morning for our C19 at the stadium at 7 pm Thurs night.
New car (< 2k miles) ran into an issue in Phillipsburg PA (~2 pm) and we pulled into a Sheetz. That was it for the car...not going anywhere after troubleshooting with their tech dept. Called a dealer but 2-3 hrs for tow. Spoke with the tow company and worked out where I would hide key until they could arrive since waiting for them would result in missing the test.

Meanwhile, my wife is calling rental car companies. Most did not have any but finally found one at State College airport about 25 miles away in wrong direction to Orchard Park. There were no rental cars anywhere closer. But getting there would be an issue. Phillipsburg is a small town and no Uber/Lyft/taxi.

So we started asking Sheetz customers outside parking their cars offering $ for transport. Encountered some squirrely characters but finally found some kind fellow who would. Moved all of our items from our car into his somewhat older vehicle and were off to the airport. A very mellow nice guy and when we got to the airport he refused my $ and I tried hard to make him take it but he asked for us ‘to pay it forward’ which we will certainly do many times.

We got on the road and GPS indicated our arrival at 7:25 pm. I did my best Andretti impersonation on 219 non-highway sections passing trucks which led to several gasps from my wife. 
Ended up arriving at 7:10 and were able to get our tests. Immediately went over to O’Neills for some drinks.

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2 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

Kinda crazy story.

 

Season ticket holder in VA that had enough priority to snag 2 tix. My wife and I left VA ~8 am yesterday morning for our C19 at the stadium at 7 pm Thurs night.
New car (< 2k miles) ran into an issue in Phillipsburg PA (~2 pm) and we pulled into a Sheetz. That was it for the car...not going anywhere after troubleshooting with their tech dept. Called a dealer but 2-3 hrs for tow. Spoke with the tow company and worked out where I would hide key until they could arrive since waiting for them would result in missing the test.

Meanwhile, my wife is calling rental car companies. Most did not have any but finally found one at State College airport about 25 miles away in wrong direction to Orchard Park. There were no rental cars anywhere closer. But getting there would be an issue. Phillipsburg is a small town and no Uber/Lyft/taxi.

So we started asking Sheetz customers outside parking their cars offering $ for transport. Encountered some squirrely characters but finally found some kind fellow who would. Moved all of our items from our car into his somewhat older vehicle and were off to the airport. A very mellow nice guy and when we got to the airport he refused my $ and I tried hard to make him take it but he asked for us ‘to pay it forward’ which we will certainly do many times.

We got on the road and GPS indicated our arrival at 7:25 pm. I did my best Andretti impersonation on 219 non-highway sections passing trucks which led to several gasps from my wife. 
Ended up arriving at 7:10 and were able to get our tests. Immediately went over to O’Neills for some drinks.

 

what kind of car was that.  Dead under 2K miles. yikes.  that's unfortunate.  But, you'll remember this playoff story for a LONG TIME.  Thanks for sharing.  Love stories like this.  Bills fans persevere!  

 

 

On 1/5/2021 at 2:22 PM, BuffaloBaumer said:

going to take my son and his 2 friends. Anyone know what the testing technique they will be using because if it that brutal nasal one, he may opt out....13 years old

 

as I understand it from reading elsewhere, it's a mid-nasal sawb, not the horrid nasal one.  

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2 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

what kind of car was that.  Dead under 2K miles. yikes.  that's unfortunate.  But, you'll remember this playoff story for a LONG TIME.  Thanks for sharing.  Love stories like this.  Bills fans persevere!  

 

 

 

as I understand it from reading elsewhere, it's a mid-nasal sawb, not the horrid nasal one.  

First world problem...it is a Tesla Y. The nearest dealer was 3 hrs away in Pittsburgh. 


Correct, a mid-nasal swab is what we received yesterday...not the brain scratcher.

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Just now, Mr Info said:

First world problem...it is a Tesla Y. The nearest dealer was 3 hrs away in Pittsburgh. 


Correct, a mid-nasal swab is what we received yesterday...not the brain scratcher.

 

hey, I'm in PGH, not far from that dealer.   Feel free to PM me if there is anything I can do to help your situation.  (doesn't sound like you need it, but just in case).  

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On 1/4/2021 at 10:50 AM, richNjoisy said:

If there is already a thread on this, please delete , moderators (and please point me to it!)

 

My wife and I are attending the Bills - Colts game.  

 

So far, I am waiting word on the testing date(s), time choices, etc.  I will inform attendees at this thread when I hear otherwise.

Next, I still do not have any tickets to download. Will inform folks when THAT happens.

 

Last, I am assuming we can bring in a blanket, seat cushions, and  a banner. I will let people know if I hear anything about this being a problem.

 

I have been a Bills fan since 1969 at age 7.  This will be my first playoff game.  Same goes for my wife.

 

Oh,  we are in section 224.

 

Go Bills!  

Crazy! I was just about to create a thread asking who's part of the 6700 for tomorrow's game 😅😅😅

 

Make us proud if your going 😎😅

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45 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

 

Season ticket holder in VA that had enough priority to snag 2 tix. My wife and I left VA ~8 am yesterday morning ...

You Sir are in violation of Executive Order No. 205.2: Quarantine Restrictions on Travelers Arriving in New YorK

I think you mean you have been here visiting friends for the past month.

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7 minutes ago, DieHardFan said:

You Sir are in violation of Executive Order No. 205.2: Quarantine Restrictions on Travelers Arriving in New YorK

I think you mean you have been here visiting friends for the past month.


Yep I’m already in New York quarantining in case I’m able to score divisional round tickets...😈

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I think that these 6,000 plus fans and going to sound more like 20,000 fans. It won't be as loud as what we are used to, but I think it will definitely sound like more than 6,000-7,000 fans. Dammit I wish I could be part of this. Been so long since a post season game was played in Buffalo.

 

I can only imagine how awesome it would be if it was a full stadium. 

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1 hour ago, Mr Info said:

Kinda crazy story.

 

Season ticket holder in VA that had enough priority to snag 2 tix. My wife and I left VA ~8 am yesterday morning for our C19 at the stadium at 7 pm Thurs night.
New car (< 2k miles) ran into an issue in Phillipsburg PA (~2 pm) and we pulled into a Sheetz. That was it for the car...not going anywhere after troubleshooting with their tech dept. Called a dealer but 2-3 hrs for tow. Spoke with the tow company and worked out where I would hide key until they could arrive since waiting for them would result in missing the test.

Meanwhile, my wife is calling rental car companies. Most did not have any but finally found one at State College airport about 25 miles away in wrong direction to Orchard Park. There were no rental cars anywhere closer. But getting there would be an issue. Phillipsburg is a small town and no Uber/Lyft/taxi.

So we started asking Sheetz customers outside parking their cars offering $ for transport. Encountered some squirrely characters but finally found some kind fellow who would. Moved all of our items from our car into his somewhat older vehicle and were off to the airport. A very mellow nice guy and when we got to the airport he refused my $ and I tried hard to make him take it but he asked for us ‘to pay it forward’ which we will certainly do many times.

We got on the road and GPS indicated our arrival at 7:25 pm. I did my best Andretti impersonation on 219 non-highway sections passing trucks which led to several gasps from my wife. 
Ended up arriving at 7:10 and were able to get our tests. Immediately went over to O’Neills for some drinks.

Fantastic Story!  My wife and I drive from Rochester was much less dramatic. And we ate lunch at Danny's. I didn't need my drinks like you did.....but I still drank them.

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Have a great time guys!  Given 9%, and no tailgating on or off property, my guess a lot watching pre game warm ups.  Have a ball, and as quiet as it will be, if a player is close enough for you to yell out a msg., please for fun, have you’re spouse, kid, fried get the phone cam out so maybe a Diggs hears from one of us.

 

that would be awesome.  
 

Get Loud Mafia (like I needed to that one).

 

Im eternally jealous.

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My last update for attendees and those interested: Parking pass was sent via email separately and I printed up because it will be accepted in print form. Testing went fine and results came back (negative) in 24 hours. The ticketing , however at least for me, sucked. This "all mobile" is not well run, was at first always described as, "download to your Apple Wallet"  until I, and obviously many others said, WTF? Do you work for Apple? I For the record, I don't hate Apple I simply am one of "those" who bought Dell 'cause it was cheaper and okay for my uses. Sounds like a digression but jeesh, how did Apple end up controlling my Bills tix? Anyway, my rep said,"Ooops"  and eventually they included googlepay (as a digital wallet choice ).  Big whoop.  Can't the F'ing just send me a pdf to download to my phone? Would that be so horribly tragic?

 

so, God ,  is anyone still reading this? ... Anyway, I downloaded Googlepay, had to call my rep since,"oh, you have an Android phone?"  seriously my rep said this! And she led me by hand to my Bills Mobile site, where finally my mobile tickets showed up! Yay! Thank you, Rep. Kiss kiss kiss. But, when Isaved the tix to google pay.....yep, they disappeared.

 

I not so stupidly left my link to the Bills mobile ticket link open but I cannot access my tickets at google pay.  There is supposed to be a "passes" option but, nope. Not there.  So, I plan to arrive before my entry time tomorrow and hope my online link works. I sure

hope my problem is unique. If not, uh-oh.

 

Bills will still win but jeesh, I want to get in the friggin stadium tomorrow.

 

-Rich(formerly NJoisy) now   Richbythelake

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4 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

I think that these 6,000 plus fans and going to sound more like 20,000 fans. It won't be as loud as what we are used to, but I think it will definitely sound like more than 6,000-7,000 fans. Dammit I wish I could be part of this. Been so long since a post season game was played in Buffalo.

 

I can only imagine how awesome it would be if it was a full stadium. 

I have commented on this.  Very small crowds have made what I thought was a lot of noise watching on TV this year.  No doubt the small crowd will still make some noise.

 

I also assume everyone is spread out and they are filing up the entire stadium.  Does anyone know if that is true?

 

Are they putting people in the upper decks and using all the real estate to get some space?  

 

If they do, there is going to be tons of empty space around everyone there, and I suppose people could kind of nudge over toward the play as the ball moves up and down the field.

 

Cheat a little...if the ball is on the Colts 12 yard line, get the crowd to cheat over to the Indy side of the field.  

 

If the ball comes back over the 50, cheat back that way.

 

You can't do that with a full house, but you could probably do a little of that for this game.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, richNjoisy said:

My last update for attendees and those interested: Parking pass was sent via email separately and I printed up because it will be accepted in print form. Testing went fine and results came back (negative) in 24 hours. The ticketing , however at least for me, sucked. This "all mobile" is not well run, was at first always described as, "download to your Apple Wallet"  until I, and obviously many others said, WTF? Do you work for Apple? I For the record, I don't hate Apple I simply am one of "those" who bought Dell 'cause it was cheaper and okay for my uses. Sounds like a digression but jeesh, how did Apple end up controlling my Bills tix? Anyway, my rep said,"Ooops"  and eventually they included googlepay (as a digital wallet choice ).  Big whoop.  Can't the F'ing just send me a pdf to download to my phone? Would that be so horribly tragic?

 

so, God ,  is anyone still reading this? ... Anyway, I downloaded Googlepay, had to call my rep since,"oh, you have an Android phone?"  seriously my rep said this! And she led me by hand to my Bills Mobile site, where finally my mobile tickets showed up! Yay! Thank you, Rep. Kiss kiss kiss. But, when Isaved the tix to google pay.....yep, they disappeared.

 

I not so stupidly left my link to the Bills mobile ticket link open but I cannot access my tickets at google pay.  There is supposed to be a "passes" option but, nope. Not there.  So, I plan to arrive before my entry time tomorrow and hope my online link works. I sure

hope my problem is unique. If not, uh-oh.

 

Bills will still win but jeesh, I want to get in the friggin stadium tomorrow.

 

-Rich(formerly NJoisy) now   Richbythelake

You are not alone, have used TM for multiple events (including Crossroads) and it was NEVER necessary to load into a "wallet". I detest apple and refuse to use googlepay (looked at app and it comes up in playstore as outdated????). When I talked to BB tix office they said you could use the barcode in the bills mobile app.(it shows up as a conventional barcode with a blue constant scan bar). We'll see how that works. Hopefully they will reload it to your phone. 

 

For all their "great" security when I showed up for the covid test they scanned my barcode at the entrance and was asked for my name and given my birthday to confirm and was never asked for any ID. Anyone who looked my age could have taken the test. 

 

Also looking for a receipt for my covid test so I can turn it in to my insurance company. Got blank stares at the site and a lot of Uhhhs on the phone. 

 

Are we the only two bothered by this. Totally Unacceptable IMO.

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26 minutes ago, DieHardFan said:

You are not alone, have used TM for multiple events (including Crossroads) and it was NEVER necessary to load into a "wallet". I detest apple and refuse to use googlepay (looked at app and it comes up in playstore as outdated????). When I talked to BB tix office they said you could use the barcode in the bills mobile app.(it shows up as a conventional barcode with a blue constant scan bar). We'll see how that works. Hopefully they will reload it to your phone. 

 

For all their "great" security when I showed up for the covid test they scanned my barcode at the entrance and was asked for my name and given my birthday to confirm and was never asked for any ID. Anyone who looked my age could have taken the test. 

 

Also looking for a receipt for my covid test so I can turn it in to my insurance company. Got blank stares at the site and a lot of Uhhhs on the phone. 

 

Are we the only two bothered by this. Totally Unacceptable IMO.

 

 

We didn't even get our QR's scanned at all at the test site.    After all the e-set up we did.........we got to the tent and had to fill out a form with none of the code info etc..:doh:

 

We have our tix on the Bills app but some of our group had to set up accounts with the testing company and get their results from the website because emails didn't come.

 

I filled out a questionnaire for NYS and they sent me confirmation of my negative test result via text.  :lol:

 

I assumed there was going to be a lot of confusion so not the least bit surprised or upset that it didn't go like clockwork.

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